Jordan Urges Support for Mahmoud Abbas

BARRY SCHWEID

Published 8:00 pm, Wednesday, May 28, 2003

AP Diplomatic Writer

The Arab kingdom of Jordan, an ardent backer of President Bush's Mideast peace drive, is urging worldwide support for Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas as the key to countering terror and ending the conflict with Israel.

"There is no hope other than Abu Mazen," ambassador Karim Kawar said Thursday, even as he acknowledged Yasser Arafat as the leader of the Palestinian people.

Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, will play host for three-way talks next week in the Red Sea resort of Aqaba with Bush, Abbas, known also as Abu Mazen, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Bush hopes to get them started on a three-stage road designed to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and set up a Palestinian state by 2005.

In an interview with foreign journalists Thursday, Bush said that during his visit to the Middle East, he will remind the Palestinian and Israeli leaders that he was the first U.S. president to publicly espouse the establishment of a Palestinian state. "I am for two states, living side by side, in peace," he said.

Bush also noted that he has consistently said that the Israelis are going to have to deal with the settlement issue.

Ambassador Kawar, speaking before the Israel Policy Forum, a self-described pro-peace group of American Jews, said "there is a real power struggle" under way within the Palestinian movement.

"We are worried Abu Mazen doesn't have support from the Palestinians," he said. "It is very important to give the new prime minister the support he needs to fight terrorism."

Calling on Israel to help, Kawar said lifting curfews and roadblocks on Palestinians, freezing construction of homes for Jews on the West Bank and halting the demolition of Palestinians' homes were crucial in supporting Abbas.

Edward S. Walker, a former assistant secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt, agreed that helping Abbas was essential.

"The bottom line is going to be how much support Mazen gets from us, from Israel and the Arab countries," said Walker, who is now president of the Middle East Institute.

"One thing is absolutely clear. Arafat can't deliver. He hasn't got the president and he hasn't got the Israelis," Walker said in an interview. "The only person who can deliver is Mazen."

Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said at the White House that the president was going to "look the leaders of the Israelis in the eye and look the leaders of the Palestinians in the eye and say to them, 'You must make progress, you must implement the road map, you must carry out your concrete obligations.'"

The Palestinians must improve security and Israel must provide humane treatment to the Palestinians, he said. "This is serious work."

On Wednesday, trying to lower expectations, Condoleezza Rice, who is Bush's assistant for national security, said, "This is going to be a long process, and it is going to have its ups and downs as it always has."

"This conflict is not going to be resolved in this meeting," he said. "Peace cannot be imposed; peace has to be negotiated."

Turning to one of the most difficult issues in the conflict, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians claiming a right to live in Israel, Kawar proposed a solution.

Most of them should receive compensation, with a donors conference held to attract worldwide contributions, and a small number, perhaps 20,000 whose families live in Israel, should be permitted to live there, he said.

The Palestinians claim they were forced to leave during Israel's 1948 war for independence or that they are descendants of Palestinians who fled.

The road map, which was prepared by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, offers no solution but calls for dealing with the problem in the final stage of peacemaking.

Barring a major disruption in the volatile region, Bush will meet in Egypt on Tuesday with President Hosni Mubarak, the leaders of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and with Abbas.

Then, on Wednesday, Bush is to meet with Sharon and Abbas, in Jordan.

It is a high-stakes gamble by the president, who had been roundly criticized in Europe and the Arab world for not moving quickly into the Mideast morass and is now jumping in with both feet.

A CBS poll released Thursday indicated that a majority of Americans _ 55 percent _ approved of Bush's handling of the Mideast situation, but they were divided on whether he can help bring about a peace settlement. Forty-nine percent said Bush cannot help bring peace to the Middle East, while 48 percent said he could make a difference.

Debra DeLee, of Americans for Peace Now, welcomed Bush's summitry and said he needs to play a central role if violence is to end and negotiations begin.

DeLee said without Bush stepping in "it is doubtful that Prime Minister Sharon would have finally recognized … a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in Israel's best interests."